Creditors Committee Reaches Agreement; Final Hearing Is Last Step in Hospital Sale

A seven-member creditors committee representing the roughly 5,000 creditors of the Hoboken University Medical Center has approved a bankruptcy settlement agreement on Wednesday, crossing the last hurdle before the hospital will be sold to private bidder HUMC Holdco.

The committee also approved the sale of HUMC to Holdco, according to a press release from Mayor Dawn Zimmer.

Zimmer called it a "mile stone." The creditors have agreed a $10.2 million payment on the roughly $34 million debt. A final hearing has been scheduled in court on Thursday afternoon, during which a judge is scheduled to approve the settlement.

After that, the transaction can happen after the state health commissioner signs off on the deal. 

Zimmer has said that the hospital would run out of money on Oct. 7 (Friday), and the hospital would have had to close without this deal.

JNESO—the nurses' union—

Zimmer expressed her disappointment in this on Wednesday, saying "the city, (Hudson Healthcare Inc and the Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority) will be filing responses to JNESO’s objection and we are confident that nothing in its filing will prevent approval of the settlement agreement or the sale agreement.  We hope that union officials will reconsider their action because it clearly is not in the best interests of our residents, hospital employees or patients at HUMC.”

The parties are expected back in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newark on Thursday.